Simplicity
by Measured In Roses And Thorns
Summary: Shikamaru, his thoughts, and views on people that are somewhat close to him. Rated T just in case...


**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters... :P**

**Note: The rookie nine are 16 year olds and 17 year olds. **

**This is in the event Sasuke moved on with his life instead of leaving ( just thought i should mention this)**

**I'm not a Sakura lover, but i want Naruto to be happy so for his sake i won't kill her off...:)**

**If you don't like the pairings, then write your own story with your preferences is the best advice i can offer.. Also its entirely your choice on whether or not you read this. **

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Thoughts

He looked up at the paper white clouds against the azure sky, thinking of everything and nothing at the same time. _What would it be like to die _

_knowing no one would care? Heck, is there even an afterlife at all? _These were the type of questions he asked himself everyday as he looked into the

seemingly limitless sky. The azure colored sky brought as many answers as it did questions. with this came realizations such as the fact that

he was normal in his own eyes and didn't see much difference between himself and others of the village, even the non- ninjas. He had knew from

an early age that he was an observer, and not a person to take immediate action like Naruto. Unlike himself, he considered Naruto to be unique

and different from the norm and that Naruto had to have more of some qualities to make him that way. One of the few things he thought Naruto

lacked was the ability to piece things together love relationship wise. This could be due to the fact that Naruto was the most dense person in

Konoha and possible the entire world, and only knew he liked Sakura. So while Naruto was only thinking of getting together with Sakura and

beating Sasuke, Shikumaru had watched as every one of the rookie nine had slowly paired up and wondered when he would. (_almost everyone_

Shino, Kiba, and Lee were dating some girls from other villages that they had met while on missions) To most this wouldn't matter except that he

hadn't been paired up yet and was currently alone while the others had someone. From the start of his life he had intended to eventually get

married, (for love) and the only issue was he needed to do was to find someone who he didn't find annoying or overbearing and mentally made

a list of the girls he knew for possible marriage prospects and came up with:

Tenten, Hinata, Sakura, Temari, and Ino...

Well, Tenten was off limits, he recalled. She had gotten together in about three minutes with her crush, so he marked her off his mental list and tried remember how she got

paired up...

_**

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**_

Tenten

_**Flashback (two weeks earlier)**_

_Shikamaru had been lying in a tree in the forest trying to find a good angle for cloud gazing when he had heard voices. "What did you want to tell me_

_Tenten? You said it was important. Neji stated. His hair was in a low ponytail tumbling down his paper white shirt and he currently towered over the_

_weapon's mistress. He looked down at Tenten searching her eyes for an answer. Tenten's eyes shifted and she let out a awkward laugh. " You know,_

_now that I think about it. it doesn't really matter. How about we go spar with Lee and Naruto?" Her lip quivered as she spoke the last words, and she_

_started to walk away. Neji grabbed her hand and pulled her back." I promise to listen to wwhatever you have to say Tenten, so say it." Neji spoke each_

_word out clearly looking directly into her eyes. Tenten lowered her head and mumbled a response. "Can you repeat that and in a louder voice? Neji said_

_smirking,__"I don't think I heard you quite right." Tenten looked up as she took a deep breath before shouting_

_"Neji __I love you!" _

_"__Oh." he said looking surprised._

_Tenten took this as a rejection and started to talk again._

_" I know that you probably won't ever like me more than a friend, much less love me but I just thought you should know. Can we at least stay friends?"_

_Neji started laughing before he picked up a shocked Tenten." Stay friends? I don't think so. I love you too. In case you don't know this means you're my_

_girlfriend from now and from two months back..__ Also, I read your diary last week ... I belive you wrote a poem about __my 'Smexy White Eyes' I was_

_surprised you confessed to me today, and I'm a __bit mad. I had originally planned to ask you out tomorrow on a dinner date, but seeing as you love me _

_so much we can go right now." Tenten turned red_

_not sure whether or not she should be mad at him for reading her diary or happy that he liked her too. _

_Neji turned his head f away from her grudgingly __before calling out,"_

_"By the way Shikamaru, I can see you."_

_**End of flashback**_

Shikamaru shuddered when he remembered how Neji had threatened to cut out his eyes if he ever hit on Tenten or dishonored her in anyway.

_Man, that guy is so stuffed up about the whole defending a girl's honor. Hell, most of the girls in the village can take_ _care of their honor themselves _

_without any help! _Shikamaru thought to himself wondering what Neji would do to him if he ever heard those thoughts out loud.

Now there were four girls left, but something wasn't right....

* * *

**Sakura and Hinata out**

_Oh yeah! The idiot and his demon queen got paired up last week...How did that happen? Let's see I think it was that ramen place Naruto worships. Ichiraku , I think... Hinata and Sasuke were involved to.._

**_Flashback ( one week earlier)_**

"Sasuke -kun!! Do you want to go out with me?" Sakura cooed out to Sasuke. Sasuke was sitting at the counter of Icharaku Ramen Shop

scowling in response. Naruto took this time to burst in from his coughstalkercough "_casual" _position. " Wow Sakura! I didn't know you came

here!-" Sakura promptly punched him and shoved her knee in his back before whispering to his semi-concious self, " Do. Not. Bug. Me. Idiot!

Especially while I'm talking to Sasuke!" Naruto whimpered torn between love for the pink haired demon queen and fear. After waiting a few

minutes he waited until she was going to Sasuke's seat before standing up. Shikamaru had calmly observed all of this from his seat in the corner,

and had been the second person to know that Hinata had walked in right after Naruto. Sasuke had disapeared along with Hinata while Naruto

had been getting threatened. " Sasuke-kun! Where did you go?" Sakura called out in panic scanning the area before running out. Naruto sighed

dramatically while Shikamaru paid his bill before following her and Naruto. They didn't have to run far before they found Hinata struggling to hold a

serious face while Sasuke was bent over to kiss her hand. Sakura and Naruto hid behind a bush to watch them, while Shikamaru hopped onto a

nearby tree with a better view... " The great Uchiha must always keep his manners elegant and precise!" Hinata said with an airy gesture. Sasuke

gave a mock bow before replying, " As you wish Hinata-hime." Sasuke straightened himself out and looked her in the eye. They both burst into

laughter, clutching their stomachs and leaning on each other for avoid falling on the ground. At this point Naruto's thoughts went somewhere

along the lines of _Damn that Sasuke! He gets Sakura and Hinata! AHHHH!!!._ Sakura's thoughts were out of focus and went like Hinata?! _Why her?_

_She's so quiet! Is it because she can cook well? I can change! Wait, Hinata is nice! She is pretty too, so maybe Sasuke is shallow? Why won't you_

_love me Sasuke???_ . This is Shikamaru's estimation of their thoughts so it could be wrong... Sakura and Naruto batlled off their thoughts and

hopped out of the bushes to confront the two. " How could you Sasuke! I thought you loved me!" Sakura cried out. " Did you drug Hinata?!

Naruto yelled pointing a finger at Sasuke. He turned his head to Hinata asking," Hinata did he drug you?! Your cheeks are red! Quick! How many

fingers am I holding up? Say the alphabet backwards! Spin around in a circle twice and say apple while holding your tongue!" Sakura punched

Naruto ( he ruined her moment) and dragged him into the bushes. Sasuke stopped Hinata from spinning around in a circle and watched as Sakura

came back. Sasuke picked up a dizzy and now unconcious Hinata as Sakura stepped in front of him. " I want to know why Sasuke! Why would you-"

Sasuke cut her off, " We were never going out Sakura. I started hanging out with Hinata months ago and I love her. Nothing you do or say will make me want you. Naruto loves you. Go to him and you'll see how much he has improved since you first met him. Naruto is like a brother to me just as much as you are like a sister. "

_Annoying, stalking and insane__ siblings_...Sasuke thought to himself. Sakura took a minute to think about his words, tears streaming down her tan cheeks just as Naruto came out of the bushes stumbling. Sakura turned to Naruto and ran to help him.

" Listen, Sakura I know you like Sasuke, but can you give me a chance at least?" Naruto asked with his eyes brimming with hope. Sakura looked around to see that Sasuke and Hinata were already gone. "Yeah, I think I can Naruto." Sakura replied noticing for the first time what a clear blue Naruto's eyes were.

Shikamaru chuckled in the tree branches.

**_End of flashback_**

_Oh yeah_, he remembered _Sakura had "accidentally" put Naruto into a coma_ _when he had asked for a kiss on their first date_. Even though Sasuke and

Hinata hadn't said anything about going out, that could be because it was against their natures. Hinata was shy and considerate nature wouldn't

want to hurt anyone and Sasuke's quietness and lack of social skills ( in the presence of people other than Hinata) explained the rest. _I pity Sakura for that, though_, Shikamaru thought, _Naruto is_ _a better match._

Temari and Ino…..They weren't his first or last choice, but then again he was many's last choice in his mind. Well, he didn't see Temari that much

(long distance relationships were _too_much work) and she had been developing a brother complex lately ...Garra was also becoming stricter on

the qualities a guy had to have to date his sister. _She's probably more than likely to stick me in a crate if I decide to break up with her._ _There was **NO** way in heck I'm getting_ _into that drama! Garra can even rival Neji in death glares._

_There's always Ino..._He sighed mentally before beginning to dwell on this new possibility.. " Hmm..."Ino made more sense to him. She was pretty,

kind, (especially since she quit the Sasuke Stalking Club…) and somewhat gentler since she started listening to others more than talking... He

started to sit up with a long sigh, before hearing a cough.

"Let me guess, you are gong to say 'How troublesome?' Right?"

Shikamaru crane his neck upward to see Ino standing above him with clouds and the sky outlining her face making her blond hair stand out.

Maybe the sky isn't the only thing limitless. I wonder...Shikamaru thought. Ino began to speak at Shikamaru's pause.

"I came to see how you're doing. I just got back from a mission yesterday and I was wondering-"

Shikamaru cut her off as he jerked her down next to him and kissed her lightly before asking, "Do you want to watch clouds with me?"

Ino nodded, she was too shocked to yell out loud. Inside her mind went something like this in the seconds that it took her to answer Shikamaru....

**Ino's mental voice: HECK YES!!!!!!! YOU (the one person who might be denser than Naruto) FINALLY NOTICED ME!!! **

**Second voice: Ino, I'm your conscience. I advise you to stop screaming and calmy reply yes or nod your head. Shikamaru doesn't like unecessary loud noises, remember?**

**Ino's mental voice: Yes ma'am I remember...Though I didn't think he would scream like a girl from just a air horn going off...**

**Conscience: One air horn? You rigged 50 around his room! I told you to just wake him up with water! But noooo, you never listen to me, _YOU_ had to -**

**Ino's mental voice: Hey, I'm sorry to cut off your lecture, but I think I should reply to Shikamaru....**

**Back to the present...**

Shikamaru and Ino spent the remainder of the day watching clouds and voicing their thoughts aloud to one another until the last of the sun's

rays disappeared from the horizon.

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End file.
